Turkish Defense Minister: rapprochement with America on a safe area in northern Syria

Turkey has finalized plans and troop deployments for a possible military operation east of the Euphrates in northeastern Syria, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Wednesday, a day after US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said a unilateral Turkish incursion into eastern Euphrates would be unacceptable. .

Minister Akar added that there is a convergence of views with the US side during the meetings on the establishment of a safe area in northern Syria, "which took place in a positive and constructive atmosphere."

He stressed that Ankara will not allow the establishment of a "terrorist corridor" in northern Syria, adding that his country is waiting for the United States to "act in accordance with the spirit of the coalition, and to end its support for the YPG."

Longer consultations
Al-Jazeera correspondent in Ankara, Mu'taz Bellah Hassan, said that consultations between Turkish and US military officials were supposed to end on Tuesday, but they continued and will end today, which started since the day before yesterday.

The report added that the Turkish Defense Minister stated that he put on the table of consultations and the Turkish demands on the safe area, as Ankara wants to be a depth of 30 to 40 km, and to remove the Kurdish People's Protection Units from it, and to extract heavy weapons from the hands of its fighters.

Turkey also wants to destroy sites and tunnels erected by YPG fighters and others in the region, and that the Turkish and US sides oversee the management of this area.

Akar stressed that his country is determined to end the presence of what it describes as terrorists along the Syrian border with Turkey, and stressed that his country will do the necessary if the negotiations with America does not reach the desired result.

Ankara calls the YPG, which controls the eastern Euphrates region, a terrorist group that poses a serious security threat, while Washington has armed Kurdish fighters as its allies in the war against IS.

The dilemma of the safe zone in northern Syria is one of several differences between Ankara and Washington.A U.S. President's envoy to Syria, James Jeffrey, said last week that Turkey had adopted a very tough stance on the safe area, and that the Turks "want a deeper area than we think makes sense."

American offer
Washington has proposed an area in two phases: a five-kilometer deep demilitarized strip, supported by a second, nine-kilometer-deep strip that is devoid of heavy weapons - less than half the distance claimed by Turkey.

It is noteworthy that Turkey launched in 2016 and 2018 military operations in the north of Syria, with the cooperation of factions of the Syrian armed opposition in order to fight the Islamic State and the expulsion of fighters of the Kurdish People's Protection Units, and prevent their control over the border between Turkey and Syria.